Brick kilns continue to pollute Ha Noi

Update:
June, 26/2013 - 09:46

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More than 30 brick kilns in Ha Noi's Chuong My District keep operating, polluting the environment and impacting human health and production, even though the city's people's committee asked them to stop operations by the end of last year.—Photo ktdt

HA NOI (VNS)— More than 30 brick kilns in Ha Noi's Chuong My District keep operating, polluting the environment and impacting human health and production, even though the city's people's committee asked them to stop operations by the end of last year.

Nguyen Van Them, a resident in the district's Dong Phuong Yen Commune, said that for over 10 years, the kilns had constantly discharged exhaust fumes and trucks loaded with bricks and coal had entered the area every day.

All the owners of traditional brick kilns in the district were asked to dismantle their facilities, but 30 kilns in Dong Phuong Yen Commune failed to obey this order, said deputy chairman of the district people's committee Do Hong Quang.

Nguyen Van Tang, chairman of Dong Phuong Yen Commune's People's Committee, explained the situation by saying that land use contracts signed by kiln owners would not expire until the end of this year.

Moreover, since these owners invested a lot of money in building the kilns, the communal authorities allowed them to delay taking them apart until the end of this year.

The committee submitted a document to the Chuong My District People's Committee to ask for approval for this extension.

Trinh Duy Oai, deputy head of the district's Urban Management Unit, said this proposal was denied because it was unreasonable.

Technically, the district only allowed the commune to use this area for rice planting and breeding. Production for construction materials was only allowed in the area with impoverished soil. Nevertheless, seven households had used 18ha for brick kilns for years.

Quang said that the district had asked the commune to make a plan for ending the kilns' operations. However, the commune had not yet submitted it.

If the commune's authorities did not come up with a plan to remove the kilns by the end of the month, district authorities would do so by next month and punish relevant communal authorities, he said. —VNS